Sick of watching a comedy with someone finding out they were "just a stupid bet"? Or where the wacky granny swears at the funeral? Or when the dog farts during the really important meeting?
To offset the often cloying nature of the genre, we've gone through the entire Netflix UK catalogue and found the darkest comedies available.
Harold and Maude
Taking what's often the stuff of soap (a May to December romance), making it less conventional (he's 23 and she's 79) and then making it really weird (he's fixated with death and engineers macabre fake suicides), Harold and Maude is still as dark now as it was on release in 1971. It's developed a cult following, thanks to its unique look at romance, and while some will simply be left cold by its eccentricity, others will rightfully obsess over the many rich pleasures on display.
Young Adult
What happens to the obnoxious popular kid once they leave high school? That's the central conceit behind screenwriter Diablo Cody's viciously funny character study of a still-beautiful ex-cheerleader, played by Charlize Theron, as she makes a horribly misjudged attempt to get her sweetheart back. It's a fascinatingly brutal film which makes no real effort to soften our poisonous anti-heroine and Theron's performance is staggering, using her beauty as a weapon while going into uglier territory than most actresses would dare enter.
The Opposite of Sex
"My mother was the kind of mother who always said she was her daughter's best friend. Whenever she did, I thought, "Great! Not only do I have a shitty mother, but my best friend's a loser bitch!"" And this is what you can expect from this sour comedy which boasts a monstrous lead performance from Christina Ricci. She plays a teenage runaway with no moral compass, and a tendency to alienate those around her, who proceeds to destroy everything she touches.
Fargo
Arguably the Coens' finest film, Fargo is a masterclass in how to balance tone. Despite tragedy and horror never being too far away, there's a finely honed vein of dark humour running through proceedings. Flawless performances from William H Macy, Steve Buscemi and an Oscar-winning turn from Frances McDormand breathe life into the story.
Scrooged
Quite possibly the funniest Christmas movie ever made, Bill Murray's acerbic take on the Dickens classic is one of the few festive films that's worth watching whatever the month, mainly because of how incredibly mean it all gets. We'll even allow the slightly sentimental ending because a) it's Christmas and b) The Night The Reindeer Died. So that's okay then.
Network
One of the most incredible things about this Oscar-winning satire from 1976 is just how relevant it is today. After an anchor breaks down on TV to surprisingly great ratings, a producer seeks to cash in on the public's appetite for outrage. It's almost prophetic in its takedown of television and audience.
The Fundamentals of Caring
One of Netflix's brand new original films, this drama follows an 18-year-old with muscular dystrophy (Craig Roberts) and his caregiver (Paul Rudd) on a road trip around America. It might found cheesy and sentimental, but plenty of crass sexual jokes and an entire subplot about standing up to pee mean there's an abundance of dark humour to be enjoyed.
What We Do In The Shadows
You might assume Jemaine Clement's mockumentary about life as a modern vampire would be more silly than scary, but you'd be wrong. It's equal measures of both. For every Stu the IT guy providing you with hearty laughs, there are botched bitings and mangled bodies to make you squirm in your seat.
Frank
There are a remarkable number of mental breakdowns, deaths, and stabbings in this movie about band whose lead wears an oversized papier-mâché mask. Kate Muir from The Times called it, "profoundly weird - and perhaps also weirdly profound."
Look Who's Back
Look at the title, look at that picture, looking at us telling you that this is a wickedly dark movie about what would happen if Hitler reappeared in the modern world, and everyone just thought he was a method actor. There's a reason it beat Inside Out to become Germany's number one movie in 2015.
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